Voters Boost Tax Benefits For Disabled Veterans

(Host) Voters in 31 towns have decided to boost a
property tax benefit for disabled veterans.

State
law allows towns to exempt the first $40,000 of a disabled
veteran's property value from local taxes.

But
up until a few years ago, many towns did not allow the full benefit. Lou
Lertola is a Korean War veteran from South Burlington. He's
led a one-person lobbying campaign to encourage towns to provide the full property
tax break.

Lertola
says last week's Town Meeting Day was a success.

(Lertola) "FranklinCounty. The whole
county is at $40,000. AddisonCounty only has one
town that isn't. Chittenden has one town that isn't."

(Host)
Lertola says the votes on Town Meeting Day will reduce property tax bills for 311
disabled veterans around the state.

(Lertola) "It's not total yet,
because there a couple of towns I just haven't been able to get a hold of. But
I assume that they traditionally have not voted to increase it, and why would
they change it here. But 31 did."

(Host)
State law also has a program that allows people to pay their education taxes
based on their income rather than the value of their property. Lertola says he's
now working on ways to help veterans who qualify for that program.